Amid rape furor, journalist still in jail for exposing assault

Even though members of the Karnataka state government have
provided broad assurances that they will drop
charges against Naveen Soorinje, the young journalist remains imprisoned two months after
he was arrested for exposing an assault on women by Hindu extremists. Welcome
to Incredible India, where a journalist can be locked up for documenting a
crime against women even as millions express outrage over medieval mindsets
following the fatal gang rape of a Delhi student in December.

"We don't know how sincere these assurances are. They may
just be efforts to stall his release," Sudipto Mondal of The Hindu told CPJ by phone.

Soorinje, a TV reporter for Kannada-language Kasturi TV, was
arrested
following his report on an attack by right-wing Hindu hooligans in July. Soorinje
had been tipped off that a large group of extremists were about to launch an attack on a party in the port city of
Mangalore in an effort to police women they deemed "morally corrupt" for allegedly
staying out late, drinking, and partying with men belonging to a minority religion.
Upon arriving at the scene, the Hindu extremists chased, beat, and groped young
women, media reports said.

Soorinje, who says his calls to the police went unanswered,
caught the crime on camera. The 43 other
individuals who were charged in the episode were identified on the basis of
Soorinje's footage, according to New Delhi-based investigative magazine Tehelka. But
apparently, no good deed goes unpunished: Soorinje was arrested by Mangalore
police on November 7 and charged with more than a dozen offenses, including
rioting, assault and rioting with deadly weapons,
and using criminal force on women with the intention of outraging their modesty,
according to reports. The charges leveled against Soorinje seem
ludicrous. "An argument is being made that holding a camera is a crime," Arvind
Narrain, a lawyer with the Alternate Law Forum, a lawyers' collective based in
the state, told CPJ.

Soorinje has denied
taking part in the attack and says the charges are in retaliation for
documenting it and for accusing the police of complicity. Furthermore, a witness
on the basis of whose complaint Soorinje landed in jail, has said that he was
made to sign a blank sheet of paper by Mangalore Police, Tehelka reported. Journalists from across the country have been pressing
the state government for Soorinje's release, including a hunger
strike. "There is consensus across activists and journalists that Naveen is
innocent. He's one in a million for fearlessly exposing the Hindu right," said
Narrain.

Sadly, in naming Soorinje as a co-conspirator, the courts are
making no distinction between him and the attackers. A Mangalore court denied
Soorinje's request for bail on November 27, G. Vishnu, a Tehelka
journalist reporting on the case, told CPJ. Soorinje was denied bail again on
December 26 by the Karnataka High Court.

Soorinje's detention seems indicative of a wider penchant
among Indian authorities to try to silence the messenger rather than deal with
the root problem. On Friday, police charged
Zee News for broadcasting an interview with the companion of the Delhi rape
victim.

Sumit Galhotra is the research associate for CPJ's Asia program. He served as CPJ's inaugural Steiger Fellow and has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories, and specializes in human rights and South Asia.